The neighbor’s pine tree branches sitting on my beloved lavender azalea bushes
This winter has been a tough one, with storm after storm. Here in New York we are expected to have one storm each week in February. The latest snow storm brought down the branches of my neighbor’s huge pine tree, right on top of my beloved lavender azaleas.
As I tried to saw the bushes free the blade became stuck by the weight of the heavy branches. I’ll be crushed if this keeps them from blooming in the spring.
Snow storms can be lovely things. Forget about the cold winds, the treacherous roads and dangerous conditions. Being comfortable inside a warm home, watching the weather through the windows, it can be quite beautiful.
And, it’s an excuse Mr. Resistance enjoys immensely!
Yes, Resistance can take the form of a snow storm in full swing. It’s cold and nasty outside, who feels like working?
Hah! Not me!
I am in need of some serious heat and humidity about now.
I started reading Steven Pressfield’s book Do The Work, another kick in the butt about that old bum Mr. Resistance and how to get past him. What is it about how that guy writes about artists’ block that gets me going? I’m not sure if it’s how he says stuff, or it’s because I am reading the words and my brain connects as I read, or both. But man, I seem to get going afterwards. It works!
Here’s the latest thing: There is an art exhibit coming up next month and it’s for artists who are on twitter. The Twitter Art Exhibit Orlando is free to enter and in any flat medium except the work must be small, specifically postcard size. After the exhibit is launched the postcards will be sold and the funds donated to charity. Great idea.
I’ve known about the twitter exhibit for a while now and kept forgetting to do a small watercolor painting to enter.
As I read Do The Work I got my flash of inspiration: Do the painting! Enter the exhibit!
What genius!
Then I thought, what a jerk! What does it take to sit down and get something done around here? I guess it took that book and the magical words in it to light the fire for me. Hey, whatever works.
One half hour after I decided on what to paint and began to work I was done! I emailed them with my intention to participate in the event. Next I will prepare my little gem for it’s voyage to Orlando, Florida at the venue. I am so excited!
With the holidays upon us, there is no end to the things that need doing now. Needing to address so many items on that long and getting longer to-do list, that painting will probably be the last thing that sees any action.
How is it that there aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish it all? Besides, there is just no afternoons anymore here in New York. By 4PM the day is gone and it’s pitch black outside. It might as well be midnight it’s so dark and dreary. Add the wintry bluster of the weather lately, and let me tell you how much is going to get done.
Nothing! Yeah, you heard it right. Nothing is going to get done.
So I thought I would cheery myself up by listing some of my summer watercolor paintings.
A while back I was working in twenty minute segments of time to start and finish my paintings. It was, and still is, a good strategy for getting something down on the paper, or canvas if you desire, and finishing up quickly before I went too far and had to trash the work. It was a wonderful experiment and I’ve kept the strategy going even for larger work.
Twenty minutes into my work I stop. Sometimes I walk away to run an errand. I might work on my jewelry pieces, or finish another painting. Then I can return and work another twenty minutes, step away again and assess where I’m at.
Before I started working this way I would go too far, for too long, and ruin perfectly lovely work. Over detailing, too much color, too much stress, and in the trash!
Now if I could possibly use that little trick during this hectic holiday time, maybe, just a small maybe, I could get paintings moving.
Twenty minutes in the process is a possibility. Maybe not probable, but I’m trying to stay positive.
If the magic is in the doing I better make sure I am at the ready and working. I know all along that it’s in the process, not the outcome, where things keep moving.
The 30 in 30 Challenge is over. There was that possibility of success, of hitting 30 paintings in 30 days. Negative view: it didn’t happen. Positive view: something happened. Not a lot, but enough.
In the spirit of the positive view, I carry on in the process.
The weather being really wonderful for an October in New York, I took myself on an Artist’s Date to Clark Botanical Garden in Albertson, NY on Long Island. It’s not the beach, but it’s near my house, easy to get to, beautiful, and quiet.
Clark Botanical Garden, Albertson, NY
Thinking positive, I planned to do some watercolor sketching so I toted my equipment with me. I couldn’t decide which paper to carry along, the Canson notebook or the Arches block. I brought both. They’re small enough and I wasn’t carrying a beach chair and lunch. That decision was a good one because I learned something about each type of paper.
Canson Watercolor Spiral Book
As I sketched on the Canson above, I noticed I couldn’t rework already painted areas, which began to run. Looks like Canson paper is only good for really fast work with no going back.
Below is the Arches block. I could continue working and adding paint without having issues like the Canson notebook. The only draw back with a block is if I wanted to do another sketch I needed to free this one from the block with a palette knife. That means it had to be dry to remove causing wait time.
Arches Watercolor Block
The two works have a different feeling with each type of watercolor paper.
Working en plein air was a good experience and exercise, too. Out in nature, it takes time to adjust to seeing shapes, shadows, highlights, colors, and sorting all that information onto a 2 dimensional surface.
Let me tell you, it was hard work. The process doesn’t lie. It knows the work is hard, but doing it has rewards.
The Authentic Swing, by Steven Pressfield on my art table
Synchronicity abounds lately. It seems that when we are ready and open to receive the “gifts” things start to move. The Universe sends it’s power our way. Use it or lose it.
A while back, as I was writing here about beating Mr. Resistance by reading Steven Pressfield’s great book, The War of Art, I received a note from his lovely publicist, Callie Oettinger. She liked my posts and sent me copies of Steven’s other books. What a thrill that was! I wanted to read Turning Pro and Do The Work after I finished with The War of Art, and here they were on my doorstep. Thankful and grateful for such a generous gesture toward me, an artist writing this little blog about life and art.
Just a couple of weeks ago I spied a package at my door. To my surprise it was Steven Pressfield’s newest book, The Authentic Swing, about his writing process for his novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance. I was swooning once again.
After I stopped jumping from excitement I started to read and found it magical in the way Pressfield describes his process. Page by page I had Aha! moments.
Yes, like golf, the artist is on his own. Yes, like golf, artists need to find their own voice/style, Authentic Swing. Yes, like golf, art is an individual sport. I could identify with so much of this book it made me dizzy, the way I lose myself in painting. That kind of dizzy.
A section in the book gave me pause. I held my breath as I read it. The title of the section was Cover The Canvas. Yikes! I know all about covering the canvas, quick before I lose it.
“My mantra for first drafts is “Cover the canvas.” What I mean by that is that our supreme priority is to get SOMETHING down from Page One to The End-no matter how incomplete or imperfect.
Don’t stop. Don’t think. Don’t look down.
The enemy in the first draft is not incompleteness or inexactness of imprefection. The enemy is Resistance. The enemy is self sabotage.”
There it was, the enemy. The bane of my artist existence is Mr. Resistance, self sabotage, myself.
Am I ever going to get Resistance behind me? Learning how by reading the process of accomplished professionals like Steven Pressfield helps tremendously. As I study his books my time away from painting is much shorter than it once was. I am learning how to invite the Universe and ignore Mr. Resistance standing in the corner.
Now, if I could harness that knowledge to get over the fear of moving forward with this website, I want to hold a free giveaway of the extra copies of Mr. Pressfield’s books. When I figure that out, and if I could hide what I’m doing from Mr. Resistance, I’ll let you know.
When the Muses are in a good mood, ideas come easily and the work just flows from the brain to the brush. The only thing in the way of that synchronicity is me. Getting in the studio to do that actual work, and have that wonderful flow, is the answer.
However, the question is Resistance.
There, I’ve said it once again, out loud so Mr. Resistance can hear it.
Red Lady Hydrdangeas @2013 Dora Sislian Themelis, 7×9 Watercolor, #3 30 in 30 Challenge
Inching my way in this 30 in 30 Challenge, as I said before, is a challenge. It’s tedious. It’s tiresome.
It’s even ridiculous that this is becoming a chore.
Enter Mr. Steven Pressfield once again to save my day! I am back to reading his book The War of Art. And somehow, with surprising timeliness, I received his newest book from his lovely publicist in the mail. It’s just what I need right at this moment.
“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), “Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?” chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”
Sorting out the hows and whys of dodging Mr. Resistance has become a full time job. I wish I could say painting is my full time job, but that’d be a stretch considering I spend plenty of time resisting it.
Weird, right? But so it is.
Surfing the idiot net today in search of inspiration, and using that excuse, I found this wonderful cartoon on the Hyperallergic.com site titled Is Procrastination Productive? Funny how my daily schedule is just like this cartoon, art vs anything other than art. It’s ridiculous, but it’s the truth in it that makes this hilarious.
